Let them in!

The people have been barred by big money from access to government, the courts and economic opportunity. Photo: Steve Snodgrass via Flickr.

From New York City to Oakland, and several cities in between, the police, on orders from city officials, have smashed the Occupy encampments and evicted the protestors from public parks and spaces. More politicians from Congress to the state and local level want the Occupy people OUT!

Well, why don’t they start letting them into the places where decisions are being made against their legitimate interests? Let them IN to:

Having jobs and affordable housing;

Their legislatures without having to pay to play;

The courts when they are wrongfully injured or have other grievances without being blocked by corporatist dogmas and judges;

Access to civil lawyers pro bono when they are in dire need, as suggested by Cincinnati attorney Paul Tobias;

The dispensing and regulatory agencies with their petitions (without having to face grinding delays and costs);

Universal health care so they can escape the present avariciousness called “pay or die”;

Fair contracts, from student loans to mortgages, without fine print and gouging fees and robo-signing type shenanigans that trap them into contract peonage (see FairContracts.org);

Fair and clean elections with voluntary public financing and easier ballot access for third party candidates to give voters more choice beyond the two-party dictatorship;

The media to express themselves on television, radio and in newspapers, so dominated by the plutocratic values of corporatism;

Public places to petition and circulate their materials in these large malls that are taxpayer subsidized but considered off limits because they are corporate owned;

The political process, with other citizens, with full rights to challenge in courts and by referenda the politicians and their corporate paymasters who unconstitutionally and illegally plunge our country into wars, invasions and occupations abroad;

A clean environment where they can breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe food by enforcing the existing laws with adequate budgets; and

The facilities to band together as workers, consumers and taxpayers that exist for commercial companies and their investors.

Beyond encampments

There would be no need for encampments or street demonstrations if people were allowed IN to these arenas of power, communications and good livelihoods. You don’t see corporate executives and managers protesting in the streets [unless you believe this New Yorker parody, “We Are the 1%” — Ed]. Because they are already IN!

It has been said repeatedly that the Occupy Wall Street movement has no specific agenda. Look at their signs and banners. It is obvious; they want IN. They no longer want to be excluded, disrespected, unemployed, defrauded, impoverished, betrayed and in big and small ways OUT.

They want justice, opportunity and, as the ancient Roman lawyer Marcus Cicero advocated for, the freedom to participate in power.

About Ralph Nader

Comments

Humans spend an awful lot of time and money to buy their way OUT of power, Mr. Nader. Petroleum society has simply given us the means to select which responsibility we don’t want to take on at any particular moment.
Don’t want to go to bed and get your natural rest cycle?
Flip a switch and turn on a light. It’s OK, you can pay later.
Don’t want to get involved in raising children?
Put them on a bus and send them to school. It’s OK, you can pay later.
Don’t want to grow and prepare your own food and ensure it’s clean and healthy?
Cheaper and easier food is just down the road. It’s OK, SOMEone will do SOMEthing to make sure it’s safe.
Your company wants to have a factory but doesn’t want to pay for the roads to get to it? The ‘government’ will take care of that and give you a tax break to boot, because it creates ‘jobs’ for people so they don’t have to stay home and look at themselves getting fatter and dumber.
For centuries, humans have sought ‘easier’ living conditions: comfort under the guise of ‘security’.
The only real security is that which you can make yourself. The ‘Occupiers” need to prove that they can form their own government, their own infrastructure, and most importantly, their own food without the System of Systems growing, processing, and transporting it for them. THEN they can have a real platform to stand on that may or may not allow the 0.1% to continue exploiting them. The wealth that WE have given to the 0.1% is gone. Say “Goodbye” to it and start over. Say “Goodbye” to what you formerly thought was a democracy and start over. You don’t need them. They need you, and you need the planet. Start by living as part of it, rather than as a discarded part of someone else’s economic fantasy.